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Many Disciplines (many + discipline)
Selected AbstractsDirect Visualization of Deformation in VolumesCOMPUTER GRAPHICS FORUM, Issue 3 2009Stef Busking Abstract Deformation is a topic of interest in many disciplines. In particular in medical research, deformations of surfaces and even entire volumetric structures are of interest. Clear visualization of such deformations can lead to important insight into growth processes and progression of disease. We present new techniques for direct focus+context visualization of deformation fields representing transformations between pairs of volumetric datasets. Typically, such fields are computed by performing a non-rigid registration between two data volumes. Our visualization is based on direct volume rendering and uses the GPU to compute and interactively visualize features of these deformation fields in real-time. We integrate visualization of the deformation field with visualization of the scalar volume affected by the deformations. Furthermore, we present a novel use of texturing in volume rendered visualizations to show additional properties of the vector field on surfaces in the volume. [source] Serious Games: Broadening Games Impact Beyond EntertainmentCOMPUTER GRAPHICS FORUM, Issue 3 2007Ben Sawyer Computer and videogames for many years has been an island of technology and design innovation largely left to itself as it morphed from a cottage business into a global media and software industry. While there have been pockets of derivative activity related to games and game technology only in the last half-dozen years has there been a real movement toward exploiting this industry in many new and exciting ways. Today the general use of games and game technologies for purposes beyond entertainment is collectively referred to as serious games. The Serious Games Initiative was formed in 2002 and since its inception has been among a number of critical efforts that has helped open up the world and many disciplines to the ideas and innovations that may be sourced from the commercial, independent, and academic game fields. This has been a person-by-person, project-by-project effort that not only has informed us about the potential of games but also in how you merge innovation and innovators from one discipline with those in another. In this talk we will explore the total gamut of the serious games field identifying past the obvious how games and game technologies are being applied to problems in a wide array of areas including healthcare, productivity, visualization, science, and of course training and education. Once a proper definition of serious games is established the talk will focus on the current state of the field as it relates to research and infrastructure issues that are needed to make the difference between seeing serious games take hold as a major new practice or having it devolve into another trend of the moment lost to history. [source] A Framework for Measuring the Importance of Variables with Applications to Management Research and Decision Models,DECISION SCIENCES, Issue 3 2000Ehsan S. Soofi In many disciplines, including various management science fields, researchers have shown interest in assigning relative importance weights to a set of explanatory variables in multivariable statistical analysis. This paper provides a synthesis of the relative importance measures scattered in the statistics, psychometrics, and management science literature. These measures are computed by averaging the partial contributions of each variable over all orderings of the explanatory variables. We define an Analysis of Importance (ANIMP) framework that reflects two desirable properties for the relative importance measures discussed in the literature: additive separability and order independence. We also provide a formal justification and generalization of the "averaging over all orderings" procedure based on the Maximum Entropy Principle. We then examine the question of relative importance in management research within the framework of the "contingency theory of organizational design" and provide an example of the use of relative importance measures in an actual management decision situation. Contrasts are drawn between the consequences of use of statistical significance, which is an inappropriate indicator of relative importance and the results of the appropriate ANIMP measures. [source] Referral pathways and diagnosis: UK government actions fail to recognize complexity of lymphomaEUROPEAN JOURNAL OF CANCER CARE, Issue 6 2007D.A. HOWELL rgn Referral pathways and diagnosis: UK government actions fail to recognise complexity of lymphoma To gain survival advantages potentially associated with prompt diagnosis, the UK government introduced identical waiting-time targets for all cancers, and guidelines to ensure that general practitioners make appropriate hospital referrals. For lymphoma, the evidence guiding these actions is limited. This study examined referral pathways in patients with lymphoma and variations in time to diagnosis by discipline of first referral. A case series study was conducted including all patients aged over 25 years, newly diagnosed with lymphoma in the UK county of West Yorkshire, during 2000. Data were extracted from primary care and hospital records of 189 patients. Referral pathways were described, and the number of days between first referral and diagnosis calculated. A distinct referral pathway did not exist; patients were initially referred to many disciplines. Surgical referrals predominated, and only 12% of patients were sent directly to haematology. Time to diagnosis varied by discipline and was shorter for patients sent to haematology than for most other common disciplines. UK government actions to ensure the prompt diagnosis of patients with lymphoma are not evidence-based. The complexity of the referral pathway in patients with lymphoma, which affects time to diagnosis, has been underestimated. Further government actions should be evidence-based, ensuring prompt diagnosis of lymphoma from whatever discipline patients originate. [source] Multitrophic interactions in the rhizosphere Rhizosphere microbiology: at the interface of many disciplines and expertisesFEMS MICROBIOLOGY ECOLOGY, Issue 2 2008Anton Hartmann Guest Editor No abstract is available for this article. [source] Measuring metabolic rate in the field: the pros and cons of the doubly labelled water and heart rate methodsFUNCTIONAL ECOLOGY, Issue 2 2004P. J. Butler Summary 1Measuring the metabolic rate of animals in the field (FMR) is central to the work of ecologists in many disciplines. In this article we discuss the pros and cons of the two most commonly used methods for measuring FMR. 2Both methods are constantly under development, but at the present time can only accurately be used to estimate the mean rate of energy expenditure of groups of animals. The doubly labelled water method (DLW) uses stable isotopes of hydrogen and oxygen to trace the flow of water and carbon dioxide through the body over time. From these data, it is possible to derive a single estimate of the rate of oxygen consumption () for the duration of the experiment. The duration of the experiment will depend on the rate of flow of isotopes of oxygen and hydrogen through the body, which in turn depends on the animal's size, ranging from 24 h for small vertebrates to up to 28 days in Humans. 3This technique has been used widely, partly as a result of its relative simplicity and potential low cost, though there is some uncertainty over the determination of the standard error of the estimate of mean . 4The heart rate (fH) method depends on the physiological relationship between heart rate and . 5If these two quantities are calibrated against each other under controlled conditions, fH can then be measured in free-ranging animals and used to estimate . 6The latest generation of small implantable data loggers means that it is possible to measure fH for over a year on a very fine temporal scale, though the current size of the data loggers limits the size of experimental animals to around 1 kg. However, externally mounted radio-transmitters are now sufficiently small to be used with animals of less than 40 g body mass. This technique is gaining in popularity owing to its high accuracy and versatility, though the logistic constraint of performing calibrations can make its use a relatively extended process. [source] Modelling current trends in Northern Hemisphere temperaturesINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF CLIMATOLOGY, Issue 7 2006Terence C. Mills Abstract Fitting a trend is of interest in many disciplines, but it is of particular importance in climatology, where estimating the current and recent trend in temperature is thought to provide a major indication of the presence of global warming. A range of ad hoc methods of trend fitting have been proposed, with little consensus as to the most appropriate techniques to use. The aim of this paper is to consider a range of trend extraction techniques, none of which require ,padding' out the series beyond the end of the available observations, and to use these to estimate the trend of annual mean Northern Hemisphere (NH) temperatures. A comparison of the trends estimated by these methods thus provides a robust indication of the likely range of current trend temperature increases and hence inform, in a timely quantitative fashion, arguments based on global temperature data concerning the nature and extent of global warming and climate change. For the complete sample 1856,2003, the trend is characterised as having long waves about an underlying increasing level. Since around 1970, all techniques display a pronounced warming trend. However, they also provide a range of trend functions so that extrapolation far into the future would be a hazardous exercise. Copyright © 2006 Royal Meteorological Society. [source] Strategies for teaching nursing research onlineINTERNATIONAL NURSING REVIEW, Issue 2 2004P. Moore RN Abstract Background:, Nursing, like many disciplines in university settings, is experiencing increasing demand for online courses. Development and implementation of online courses with the quality of education nursing students experience in traditional classroom settings, is essential to maintaining integrity of the educational process. Nursing research has been offered in the online format in the RN-BSN programme for 2 years. This course has an average enrolment of 80 to 90 students each semester. Purpose:, This article presents strategies used in teaching an RN-BSN nursing research course online. Conclusions:, Feedback from faculty and students indicates that these strategies have been successful in facilitating this writing intensive course through distance learning. [source] Rhinoceros behaviour: implications for captive management and conservationINTERNATIONAL ZOO YEARBOOK, Issue 1 2006M. HUTCHINS All species of rhinoceros are, to varying degrees, threatened with extinction because of poaching, habitat loss, human-rhinoceros conflict, hunting and civil unrest. Clearly the threats facing the five remaining species (Black rhinoceros Diceros bicornis, White rhinoceros Ceratotherium simum, Greater one-horned rhinoceros Rhinoceros unicornis, Javan rhinoceros Rhinoceros sondaicus and Sumatran rhinoceros Dicerorhinus sumatrensis) are anthropogenic. Although many disciplines are important for conservation, understanding the behaviour characteristics of a species should be considered a key component when developing wildlife-management and conservation strategies. A general overview of the behaviour of rhinoceros is presented, addressing ecology and social organization, activity and habitat use, feeding strategies, courtship and reproduction, and anti-predator behaviour. The implications of behavioural studies for successful management and husbandry of rhinoceros in captivity are discussed in sections on group size and composition, enclosure design and enrichment programmes, activity patterns, introductions, reproduction, hand-rearing, and health and stress. Finally, there is some discussion about the implications of this knowledge for in situ conservation in relation to designing protected areas, further aspects of animal health and stress, and reintroduction and translocation. A detailed understanding of rhinoceros behaviour is important for survival both in range-country protected areas and captivity, and such knowledge should be used to provide the most appropriate animal care and environments for these species. [source] Research Agenda for Frailty in Older Adults: Toward a Better Understanding of Physiology and Etiology: Summary from the American Geriatrics Society/National Institute on Aging Research Conference on Frailty in Older AdultsJOURNAL OF AMERICAN GERIATRICS SOCIETY, Issue 6 2006Jeremy Walston MD Evolving definitions of frailty, and improved understanding of molecular and physiological declines in multiple systems that may increase vulnerability in frail, older adults has encouraged investigators from many disciplines to contribute to this emerging field of research. This article reports on the results of the 2004 American Geriatrics Society/National Institute on Aging conference on a Research Agenda on Frailty in Older Adults, which brought together a diverse group of clinical and basic scientists to encourage further investigation in this area. This conference was primarily focused on physical and physiological aspects of frailty. Although social and psychological aspects of frailty are critically important and merit future research, these topics were largely beyond the scope of this meeting. Included in this article are sections on the evolving conceptualization and definitions of frailty; physiological underpinnings of frailty, including the potential contributions of inflammatory, endocrine, skeletal muscle, and neurologic system changes; potential molecular and genetic contributors; proposed animal models; and integrative, system biology approaches that may help to facilitate future frailty research. In addition, several specific recommendations as to future directions were developed from suggestions put forth by participants, including recommendations on definition and phenotype development, methodological development to perform clinical studies of individual-system and multiple-system vulnerability to stressors, development of animal and cellular models, application of population-based studies to frailty research, and the development of large collaborative networks in which populations and resources can be shared. This meeting and subsequent article were not meant to be a comprehensive review of frailty research; instead, they were and are meant to provide a more-targeted research agenda-setting process. [source] Hyperlink Analyses of the World Wide Web: A ReviewJOURNAL OF COMPUTER-MEDIATED COMMUNICATION, Issue 4 2003Han Woo Park We have recently witnessed the growth of hyperlink studies in the field of Internet research. Although investigations have been conducted across many disciplines and topics, their approaches can be largely divided into hyperlink network analysis (HNA) and Webometrics. This article is an extensive review of the two analytical methods, and a reflection on their application. HNA casts hyperlinks between Web sites (or Web pages) as social and communicational ties, applying standard techniques from Social Networks Analysis to this new data source. Webometrics has tended to apply much simpler techniques combined with a more in-depth investigation into the validity of hypotheses about possible interpretations of the results. We conclude that hyperlinks are a highly promising but problematic new source of data that can be mined for previously hidden patterns of information, although much care must be taken in the collection of raw data and in the interpretation of the results. In particular, link creation is an unregulated phenomenon and so it would not be sensible to assume that the meaning of hyperlinks in any given context is evident, without a systematic study of the context of link creation, and of the relationship between link counts, among other measurements. Social Networks Analysis tools and techniques form an excellent resource for hyperlink analysis, but should only be used in conjunction with improved techniques for data collection, validation and interpretation. [source] The evolution of trade-offs: where are we?JOURNAL OF EVOLUTIONARY BIOLOGY, Issue 2 2007D. A. ROFF Abstract Trade-offs are a core component of many evolutionary models, particularly those dealing with the evolution of life histories. In the present paper, we identify four topics of key importance for studies of the evolutionary biology of trade-offs. First, we consider the underlying concept of ,constraint'. We conclude that this term is typically used too vaguely and suggest that ,constraint' in the sense of a bias should be clearly distinguished from ,constraint' in the sense of proscribed combinations of traits or evolutionary trajectories. Secondly, we address the utility of the acquisition,allocation model (the ,Y-model'). We find that, whereas this model and its derivatives have provided new insights, a misunderstanding of the pivotal equation has led to incorrect predictions and faulty tests. Thirdly, we ask how trade-offs are expected to evolve under directional selection. A quantitative genetic model predicts that, under weak or short-term selection, the intercept will change but the slope will remain constant. Two empirical tests support this prediction but these are based on comparisons of geographic populations: more direct tests will come from artificial selection experiments. Finally, we discuss what maintains variation in trade-offs noting that at present little attention has been given to this question. We distinguish between phenotypic and genetic variation and suggest that the latter is most in need of explanation. We suggest that four factors deserving investigation are mutation-selection balance, antagonistic pleiotropy, correlational selection and spatio-temporal variation, but as in the other areas of research on trade-offs, empirical generalizations are impeded by lack of data. Although this lack is discouraging, we suggest that it provides a rich ground for further study and the integration of many disciplines, including the emerging field of genomics. [source] Seligman lecture 2005 food product engineering: building the right structuresJOURNAL OF THE SCIENCE OF FOOD AND AGRICULTURE, Issue 8 2006José Miguel Aguilera Abstract Driven by consumers' expectations and new knowledge, a paradigmatic shift is occurring in food engineering from the prior emphasis in processes and unit operations to the design of products that provide convenience, health and well-being. The structure of foods affects their sensorial, physical and transport properties as well as the bioavailability of some nutrients. Food structure is provided by nature or imparted during processing and preparation. Presently, food product engineering is stabilizing, transforming and creating edible microstructures that are desired by consumers using conventional unit operations. This paper revises the progress in the science of food materials and its contribution to the understanding of how food structures are formed from the molecular to the macromolecular level. Food product design of the future will be based on a wider scientific knowledge adopted from many disciplines and advanced tools that reduce the scale of fabrication. This poses a challenge to food engineering education. Copyright © 2006 Society of Chemical Industry [source] Doing anthropology in soundAMERICAN ETHNOLOGIST, Issue 4 2004Steven Feld ABSTRACT Sound has come to have a particular resonance in many disciplines over the past decade. Social theorists, historians, literary researchers, folklorists, and scholars in science and technology studies and visual, performative, and cultural studies provide a range of substantively rich accounts and epistemologically provocative models for how researchers can take sound seriously. This conversation explores general outlines of an anthropology of sound. Its main focus, however, is on the issues involved in using sound as a primary medium for ethnographic research. [source] Preconceptions: A Concept Analysis for NursingNURSING FORUM, Issue 3 2007Sandra Kundrik Leh DNSc This paper presents a concept analysis of preconceptions. Although the concept of preconceptions has been widely used in the literature across many disciplines, it is not well defined or differentiated from its related concepts. The Walker and Avant (1995) method of concept analysis is used as a framework for this investigation. A synthesized definition of the term is presented and implications for nursing are discussed. Preconceptions have a significant impact on learning and critical-thinking ability. The challenge for educators is to recognize and manage these preconceptions to ensure an effective learning experience. It is only until the concept of preconception is defined and clarified that this challenge can be met. [source] Richard Whately and the Gospel of TransparencyAMERICAN JOURNAL OF ECONOMICS AND SOCIOLOGY, Issue 1 2010David Levy Whately is a difficult thinker, partly because he is competent in so many disciplines. Joseph Schumpeter, who struggled with Whatley's "elusive" greatness, saw a systematic core in Whately: the force behind Nassau Senior's axiomatics. Whately's contemporaries did not talk of axiomatics, but they did point out that his work depended upon an unusually small number of authorities, that is, Aristotle, Bacon, and Smith. In our interpretation, these foundational sources gave Whately three guiding principles to characterize all human activity: innate sociability, innate self-love, and costly mental activity. Self-love includes a desire to know and a desire to share knowledge. These principles, coupled with a normative principle of fairness, constitute the basis for his science of reciprocal exchange, or catallactics. Violations of fairness motivate his multidimensional reform proposals. For Whately, fairness requires transparency, and the demands of transparency for tractions is literally Gospel. [source] Lack of statistical significancePSYCHOLOGY IN THE SCHOOLS, Issue 5 2007Thomas J. Kehle Criticism has been leveled against the use of statistical significance testing (SST) in many disciplines. However, the field of school psychology has been largely devoid of critiques of SST. Inspection of the primary journals in school psychology indicated numerous examples of SST with nonrandom samples and/or samples of convenience. In this article we present an argument against SST and its consequent p values in favor of the use of confidence intervals and effect sizes. Further, we present instances of common errors that impede cumulative knowledge in the literature related to school psychology. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Psychol Schs 44: 417,422, 2007. [source] An automated method for ,clumped-isotope' measurements on small carbonate samplesRAPID COMMUNICATIONS IN MASS SPECTROMETRY, Issue 14 2010Thomas W. Schmid Clumped-isotope geochemistry deals with the state of ordering of rare isotopes in molecules, in particular with their tendency to form bonds with other rare isotopes rather than with the most abundant ones. Among its possible applications, carbonate clumped-isotope thermometry is the one that has gained most attention because of the wide potential of applications in many disciplines of earth sciences. Clumped-isotope thermometry allows reconstructing the temperature of formation of carbonate minerals without knowing the isotopic composition of the water from which they were formed. This feature enables new approaches in paleothermometry. The currently published method is, however, limited by sample weight requirements of 10,15,mg and because measurements are performed manually. In this paper we present a new method using an automated sample preparation device coupled to an isotope ratio mass spectrometer. The method is based on the repeated analysis (n,=,6,8) of 200,µg aliquots of sample material and completely automated measurements. In addition, we propose to use precisely calibrated carbonates spanning a wide range in ,47 instead of heated gases to correct for isotope effects caused by the source of the mass spectrometer, following the principle of equal treatment of the samples and standards. We present data for international standards (NBS 19 and LSVEC) and different carbonates formed at temperatures exceeding 600°C to show that precisions in the range of 10 to 15,ppm (1 SE) can be reached for repeated analyses of a single sample. Finally, we discuss and validate the correction procedure based on high-temperature carbonates instead of heated gases. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Effective primate conservation education: gaps and opportunitiesAMERICAN JOURNAL OF PRIMATOLOGY, Issue 5 2010Susan K. Jacobson Abstract Conservation education goals generally include influencing people's conservation awareness, attitudes, and behaviors. Effective programs can help foster sustainable behavior, improve public support for conservation, reduce vandalism and poaching in protected areas, improve compliance with conservation regulations, increase recreation carrying capacities, and influence policies and decisions that affect the environment. Primate conservation problems cut across many disciplines, and primate conservation education must likewise address crossdisciplinary issues. Conservation educators must incorporate both theoretical and practical knowledge and skills to develop effective programs, and the skill set must stretch beyond pedagogy. Expertize needed comes from the areas of planning, collaboration, psychology, entertainment, and evaluation. Integration of these elements can lead to greater program success. Am. J. Primatol. 72:414,419, 2010. © 2009 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source] Measurement of Outcome: A Proposed SchemeTHE MILBANK QUARTERLY, Issue 4 2005BARBARA STARFIELD The need to demonstrate that health care has an influence on health status is increasingly pressing. Such demonstrations require tools of measurement which are unfortunately not available. Development of instruments has been hampered by a lack of consensus on appropriate frames of reference, and there appears to be little agreement on what should be measured and what relative importance should be ascribed to different dimensions of health status. An approach that does not require the assignment of numerical values or weights to various aspects of health status and is applicable to all age groups within the population and to the whole spectrum of health problems rather than to specific medical diagnoses would seem desirable. A scheme that is based upon the development of a "profile" rather than a single "index" for describing health status is proposed in this paper. The model is a conceptual framework whose usefulness will depend upon efforts of a large number of researchers from many disciplines to develop instruments which can be incorporated in it. Although the problems in development of the scheme are complex, I hope that it will focus attention on the relevant dimensions and facilitate improved coordination of efforts to produce ways to demonstrate what health care contributes to health. [source] Doing social volcanology: exploring volcanic culture in IndonesiaAREA, Issue 1 2010Katherine Donovan Social volcanology refers to the integration of social science research methods into the traditionally physical domain of volcanology. This emerging multi-methodological research area draws from many disciplines in order to examine hazard-mitigation strategies that are community focused. A key facet of social volcanology is the role of culture and this paper explores the influence of traditional cultural values in relation to the 2006 volcanic crisis at Mt Merapi (Java). This paper describes the complex amalgam of cultural and socio-economic factors that influence community reactions to volcanic hazards and demonstrates the need for interdisciplinary hazard research. [source] The jungle of quality of life: Mapping measures and meanings for eldersAUSTRALASIAN JOURNAL ON AGEING, Issue 1 2009Penny Hambleton The literature on quality of life (QOL) can be described as a jungle: vast, dense and difficult to penetrate, especially for those entering the field without a specialist QOL background. While QOL as a term is entwined in an extensive body of work from many disciplines and covering diverse perspectives, it has been most extensively documented and operationalised within the domains of health-related socioeconomic drivers and is largely quantitative in nature. Subjective and qualitative measurement is less fully developed and documented. This review paper provides a map through the QOL literature by constructing a tabular framework to position the measures and meanings of QOL prior to undertaking a phenomenological study with older people. It concludes by arguing for attention to the further development of qualitative experiential measures specific to life-stage QOL for older people, having found these perspectives rarely visible. [source] Optical Spectroscopy of Biomolecular DynamicsCHEMPHYSCHEM, Issue 9 2004Peter Vöhringer Prof. Of visible interest: At the Minerva-Gentner Symposium on Optical Spectroscopy of Biomolecular Dynamics, which took place between 21st and 25th March 2004 at Banz, Germany, scientists from many disciplines came together to compare the study of single molecules to that of ensembles. Fluorescent proteins, time-resolved IR, and protein folding dynamics were among the main topics discussed. 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